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The Magic Railroad
'The Magic Railroad Parody '''is a YouTube satire film directed and edited by MrConductorFan1406. Background The film was announced on June 25, 2018, via Vinnie’s Twitter, but had already been secretly in production for over two years beforehand. The film is a parody of the 2000 film ''Thomas and the Magic Railroad, Thomas’ only feature-length theatrical movie, and reimagines it as a musical, stoner comedy released in serialized instalments. The movie is being filmed with a combination of Wooden Railway trains, large-scale props, and live actors. The film features Vinnie as Junior, Rob as Mr Conductor, Jacob Jarrett as Patch, and Zoe Rose as Lily. Many of the live-action segments were shot at the Strasburg Railroad and on the Isle of Man, both of which were prominent shooting locations in the original film. The film was originally announced for a spring 2019 release, but has since been pushed back to July 14, the 19th anniversary of the original movie's UK release. The first full trailer was released on April 15 and is a parody of the trailer for the final Star Wars film, The Rise of Skywalker. The Star Wars trailer was released only a day before, and Vinnie put together his trailer in a single day. A second trailer was uploaded on June 20. This trailer revealed that the film would be released in parts on a weekly basis rather than all at once. The first part of the film was uploaded on July 14 as announced. The first part takes place in 1969 and serves as a prologue to the film. It details Burnett Stone's youth, his unsteady friendship with P.T. Boomer, and meeting the first Mr Conductor (also portrayed by Rob). The film intends to both satirize the more outlandish and comical elements of the original film, whilst also making up for the poor acting and writing it wore on its sleeve with fully developed characters thanks to an extended running time of an estimated 4 hours. The parody heavily expands on aspects of the original film. For example, Schemer, the closest thing Shining Time Station had to an antagonist, did not appear at all in the original movie, and the parody explains that this is because he has been evicted from the station and is now in prison. Many characters found in the original have been developed further and given new backstories, specifically Lily, Burnett Stone, Diesel 10, and Mr. Conductor, as well as the re-imagining of several characters only found in the director's cut of the original, such as P.T. Boomer, Tasha Stone, Cranky the Crane, and George the Steamroller. The majority of the film is shot in live-action with actors but the animated sequences utilize a number of techniques, including miniatures, hand-drawn animation, computer-generated imagery, stop motion animation, and digital matte paintings. The project was shot over the course of nearly 4 years in three countries - Canada (Ontario), United States (California, Nevada, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island), and the Isle of Man in the United Kingdom. The film was released on YouTube in 10 instalments, concluding in February 2020 with the full film in one video. As of November 2019, the first six parts have been released. Category:MrConductorFan1406